Well it has been quite a long break between posts, sorry about that.
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| Blackcomb pre-winter |
Maddie eventually began training on the week of the 28t of October and wasn't that an interesting week. Our first experience of the 'real' halloween. Throughout the week in our housing facility we had a pumpkin carving night which turned out well. The idea is that you cut the top off the pumpkin empty out the inside using a spoon and then carve your creation into the side of the pumpkin before adding a candle, replacing the top and boom, there is your creation. I feel that our attempts were pretty awesome.
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| Andy's Pumpkin Carving |
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All House Carvings
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| Maddie's Carving |
The week leading into halloween was incredible. Everyone is buzzing and it is basically a big dress up party. People don't particularly dress in scary uniforms or as zombies but just find whatever crazy costume they can find and a cheap shop or go all out and spend way to much. Not only are some of the costumes incredible but the amount of effort people put into their houses. There were plenty of haunted houses to go and visit as well as an entire community dedicating their street to halloween and linking their houses via the neighbouring fence to create a haunted village. We spent the night out with friends on the night of halloween admiring everyone else's costumes while we had a few beverages with the new friends we had made within the brio staff housing. Needless to say a couple of us ended up a little worse for ware the next day, including Maddie's nose dive into the ground which we think gave her a mild concussion the next day.
So we have been in our brio house and whistler for just over a week and as the days roll on more and more people are flocking here. We spent most nights having a few beverages in different rooms within the staff housing and this is where we have met new friend's from the UK Emily and Tom, kiwis Lucas and Lauren and next door neighbours Tom, Henry and Rachel also from the UK. We had one of our house mates move in, Charmaine a 23yr old from QLD. She did the last winter season at Big White and a summer camp in the east. We are still eagerly awaiting the arrival of Kate, our supposed house mate, who has since the 1st Dec, turned into Charlotte. We think we will still call Charlotte Kate though. We really enjoy Charmaine's company, we got really lucky on the housemate front.
I began my training on the 4th of November learning and experiencing all the in's and out's of being a retail/rental technician for one of the more prestigious hotel and valet services within Whistler Blackcomb (The Four Seasons Hotel).
The morning of the 5th of November we look outside our window to finally see some snow has began to fall. It was not a great deal but just enough to sprinkle of the trees, grass, mountain tops and even the cars in the car park. Winter seemed to be heading in the right direction and two days later an even bigger dump of snow occurred. It looked to be a about a foot of snow and as I walked to the village that day everyone was talking about the possibility of Whistler mountain opening early and the signs were looking good. The weekend had passed, the village continued to get busy and the decision on Tuesday was that Whistler mountain would be opening on Saturday the 16th of November. I could hear (in my imagination) the roars of excitement from everyone within the WB community as we can now prepare to head up the mountain.
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| Yay the snow has arrived |
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| Looking right from our balcony at the cars in the driveway |
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| Up Blackcomb Mountain |
Not only was the whole community preparing for the snow but Maddie was still under prepared with no snowboard, boots, bindings, helmet or goggles. So the hunt was on and in a hurry to find Maddie a decent board and all the added extras to go with it. Eventually after much deliberation she found 'the one', oh and of course it has a cat on it. The crazy cat lady is really starting to show. With the purchase of her new helmet and goggles, with staff benefits of 40-50% off, she was nearly set. The final touch were the purchase of some cat and paw print stickers to apply to the back of the helmet. Now she was ready to ride. I was keen as mustard to get up the mountain and only a few days to go we were psyched.
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New Helmet and Stickers
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| Full Get up |
Now the question was how early were we going to get up for opening day. The word going around was that some people arrive at least 24 hours earlier than opening time just to be the first on the mountain. After some discussion with Henry and Lucas who had the day off with me we decided a 6 am departure from the housing estate would be good enough for us. Unfortunately Maddie had to work on opening weekend but she would get the opportunity midweek to have her virgin experience on a snowboard. The snow continued to fall in flurries and opening day would soon be on upon us......
My alarm went off and the time was 515am. It was opening day and to get a good spot at the Gondola we had to be up early. Henry, Lucas and I ventured down to do the Whistler Gondola and the crowd was buzzing. So many people had even woken much early than us, let alone the people that had been there all night, crazy people. WB workers continually came around taking photos, playing music and getting everyone to give the cameras a cheer every so often. Everyone's faces were filled with excitement and buzzing to get up the mountain. The countdown begun, 10, 9, 8.........1 and the dorrs were open and it was time to head up the majestic mountains. We rose above the fog in the village and the 22 minute gondola ride was spectacular. We had a great first day playing in the snow until my binding broke. Bummer first day but on the bright side I still have 6 months of boarding to be done.
Lucky Us...
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| Tom and Emily with our Snow Man |
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| Heading up Whistler Gondola |
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| Big Red Chair lIft |
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| Excalibur Blackcomb Gondola |
Opening day was exciting but it was all for nothing. The days post opening day were sunny the temps started to increase and we got massive inversion. Which means the alpine temps were warmer than the village temps. Whistler mountain opened and a week later the snow making stopped and the freezing levels were nil. It was 6 degrees up on the mountain and 2 degrees in the village. Not good! The runs that were open to mountain goers got flogged they became icy and dangerous. It wasn't a pretty picture. People were getting injured and we were all praying for a good snowfall. USA thanksgiving weekend was fast approaching and Blackcomb mountain was opening. Usually Whistler village is buzzing during this period but yet again mother nature had her own plans. NO SNOW!! It was so disappointing. People still came for the weekend but it was not as busy as previous years. People have been saying it hasn't been this bad in a long time. Some are saying that we may have a late season start but a longer season, going through until May. We'll see.
We've had some good snowfall in the last couple of days and the temps have considerably decreased, into the minuses now, so WB have started the snow guns back up and there is snow :)
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| Big Red Express on Whistler |
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| Top of Whistler |
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| Excalibur Gondola |
Maddie has been having some lessons and she's up and racing, well kind off. She's up on the mountain and making her way down the family green runs very slowly but she has improved considerably since her first lesson. She's had some awesome stacks and has lots of battle wounds but she's determined to keep at it. She's the only one of our group that needed to learn so that is incentive enough, to keep up with the group.
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| I am Ready |
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| On the Magic Carpet at Whistler Mid Station |
So much has happened in the few weeks we've been here. Lots of parties, drinking, dinners, meeting new friends, welcome dinner, our first NHL game, GO Canucks GO... the list goes on. Looking back at our previous blogs one thing that has surprised us is how much we miss nursing! We were so excited to have a break from it but we have come to realise that we love our jobs. We miss the patients (I know, right?) and we miss the clinical aspect not to mention, the often public respect (which we don't seem to get here even though we basically say yes at all costs). We love the people we work with but it's just not what we really love doing. However on the plus side we have jobs which means there is some form of income coming in and we are getting to live in this amazing place, meet new people and have an incredible time. We have seriously considered getting our registration sorted so we can work here. Maybe not in Whistler but maybe in Vancouver. Food for thought.
We have decided to stay on for the summer though. The mountains turn into a maze of downhill and cross country bike tracks. It is the largest in the world. Not to mention all the hiking and summer activities to partake in. People that have stayed here or are from here say the summer is better than the winter. Hard to believe really so we're going to stay and check it out.
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| Drinking Session |
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| Our Poster Wall, Can't forget home |
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| Snow Groomers and Machines at working, early morning |
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| Blackcomb Gondola |
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| Sunset over Whistler |
Canucks vs BlueJackets
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| Canucks vs BlueJackets |
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| Canucks vs BlueJackets |
Last Note am loving the hockey and getting right behind the Canucks... Go Canucks Go. Looking forward to next week Canucks vs Bruins, Stanley cup final of 2011 when all the riots occurred in Vancouver. Should be a cracker of a game.
Not sure when next post may be as we will be shredding up this snow like nothing us.
Happy Summer Holidays Ozzies we are kicking in up in Pow Pow
Love Andy and Maddie
